LEARNT TO FLY AT 60

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27874, 24 January 1956, Page 19

LEARNT TO FLY AT 60

U.S. GRANDMOTHER’S RECORD

Mrs Zaddie Bunker, a woman who once said she was going to get a rocking chair on her sixty-fifth birthday, woke up on her birthday to find “Zaddie’s Rocking Chair” painted on the cowl of a private aeroplane in Palm Springs, California. She had recently helped to fly a Cessna across the East Coast of America and subsequently received a multiengine rating. She was the first great grandmother to qualify for this. Harriet B. Blackburn, writing in the ‘Christian Science Monitor,” says that Mrs Zaddie Bunker had her first aeroplane ride in 1935. but was led to think she was too old then to become a pilot herself. In 1951, however, a test pilot for North American Airways said no-one was too old, and gave her her first lesson. Although her associates formed a friendly conspiracy to keep her from flying, she outwitted them, went to a distant airport for a licence, and bought an Ercoupe plane. She sold it subsequently, but manages to keep flying, and is now president of the Palm Springs Aircraft Corporation. Mrs Bunker is immensely public spirited and has helped to organise the Palm Springs Chamber of Comcerce, the local Community Church, the Palm Springs Women’s Club, and has served as a high school trustee. Telling of some of her flying experiences, said said: “I shall never forget flying from Dallas, Texas, to Louisiana. I was unable to close the plane canopy by about five inches, so flew with it that way. On arrival it was discovered that the exhaust manifold had slipped out of the muffler, allowing engine fumes to enter the cabin. The partly open canopy had given me fresh air to counteract this, and never again did the canopy stick. Also I never again left the ground without checking every safety fastener.”

Last June she entered the all women’s race from Washington, D.C., to Havana, Cuba, which was delayed two days by bad weather. Meanwhile she was in the air on a flight to South Carolina, but lost her bearings because of the excessive rain. A forced landing seemed necessary. She started down hoping that the field she thought she saw would be suitable. Her propeller clipped and cut a high wire. Had it not done so, her wheels would have been caught in the same wire, and she would have lost control of the plane. She was nearly out of fuel, according to her gauge, but she soared again, planning to try another descent. At that moment, a plane swooped down in front of her. It was flown by a Los Angeles woman, who knew she had not arrived at her destination and had come out to find her. .Mrs Bunker gratefully followed thp other woman’s plane back to South Carolina, though according to the gauge she was not supposed to have sufficient fuel for the trip.